Smartphone kill switch coming to US in 2015 to reduce device thefts

Smartphone theft is a huge problem right now. Last year, the total number of incidents doubled to nearly 3.1 million. One thing that would help keep that number from rising again is an anti-theft kill switch, something that may be ubiquitous by 2015.

The CTIA’s goal is to have all new smartphones that ship after July of 2015 to feature a low-level tool that renders them useless to anyone but the original owner after being reported stolen. Some functionality duplicates what’s already available — like remote lock and wipe.

The proposed kill switch tool will, however, also prevent reactivation. That should keep erstwhile thieves and hackers from making phones usable even if they’ve been blacklisted on the international database. Should this even be necessary, you ask? If a phone’s been blacklisted, that ought to mean it can’t be reactivated. However, right now the blacklist only includes North America and Europe, so there are plenty of viable overseas markets for stolen phones (notably Russia and China) that aren’t yet protected by the kill switch.

Just about all the big names in the wireless business have already signed on with the voluntary kill switch initiative. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are all on board, as are Samsung, Nokia, HTC, and Huawei. Five of America’s biggest carriers are involved, too: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular.

Regardless of what the CTIA members do, it’s almost certain that several states will pass legislation this year that mandates a kill switch on all new phones. The voluntary initiative has been applauded by several legislators leading the charge in their respective states, but they also say it doesn’t go far enough. An opt-in plan isn’t going to cut it, they say.